


the branch that sways in the wind (or, a tale of infinite patience in three seasons)

by orphan_account



Category: Bleach
Genre: Community: help_haiti, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-15
Updated: 2010-02-15
Packaged: 2017-10-07 07:30:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/62838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's slow, but the wind is changing in Seireitei. (Written for my Help Haiti winner's request.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	the branch that sways in the wind (or, a tale of infinite patience in three seasons)

1.

He's used to it. Really.

He hears more about it than Shunsui does, insofar as anyone in their class says anything at all. Maybe he's an easier target-- quiet, ill, loath to cause a problem-- and maybe it's simply that Shunsui hides it better. There are rumors in any group, and twice as many in their particular class. And it's not as if anyone is particularly _bad_ about it, not really. Actually, they're pretty tolerant as Seireitei goes, because they all have more important things to worry about. So when they do make some off-color comment, Juushirou has long since learned to ignore it. It's not worth the trouble.

So he smiles and pretends that he's in on the joke, too, that it is funny when someone insinuates that perhaps he and Shunsui have an untoward sort of relationship. After all, they don't mean anything by it-- if they really believed it, they wouldn't take Shunsui and his antics with their female classmates so seriously.

"You're worrying again," Shunsui says, and proffers his pilfered sake. Juushirou waves it away, as usual.

"It's nothing," he says. It really is no wonder there are rumors, never mind the fact that Juushirou is fairly certain no one actually has anything but suspicions and jokes and certainly nothing even resembling proof. They're sitting together under a tree, hip to hip and fairly well secluded from sight, sharing a bottle of sake (or rather, would be if Juushirou had any interest in drinking just then). It's certainly a position that would be scandalous for a man and a woman, and is only somewhat less so for the two of them. Perhaps if they weren't sitting quite so closely together, they would have some room to deny it.

Shunsui puts an arm over his shoulders-- not quite companionably, given how closely they're still sitting-- and he's suddenly very, very glad that no one's likely to see them now. Used to it or not, he's not entirely sure he could smile and nod at someone mocking this.

"Maybe I will have a drink, after all," he concedes. It's a bad idea; he knows it is even before he drinks. The sake will burn his raw throat, and if he's not careful that will make him cough. Once he starts coughing, he might not be able to stop-- but then again, that would give them a perfect excuse should anyone happen to stumble across them back here. Obviously they had been sitting a safe distance away from one another before the poor, ill man had gone into a fit of coughing and his friend was simply helping to steady him.

He's careful, and doesn't cough. He isn't sure whether to be disappointed because he doesn't have an excuse for this or relieved because a coughing fit would certainly mean the end of their tryst this evening. And he hates that the first thought is even an option, something he would even have to consider.

"It's not like you to be so wound up," Shunsui says. He doesn't offer the bottle to Juushirou again. "Relax."

Juushirou decides on relieved, in the end. It's impossible to wish himself anywhere else, no matter how much for his own good it is, when he is so very content in that particular moment. Not even the leaves falling from the trees and the cool air that blows them unerringly into Shunsui's hair distract either of them for very long, not when their time together is so short.

 

2.

Strangely enough, things had been easier when they were in the Academy. Had you asked Juushirou back then, he would have told you-- had he answered you at all, because he would have been far more likely to demur with a smile and a change of subject-- that things would get better when they were more powerful, more respected. People would have been afraid to say such vicious things, no matter how friendly he was or how relaxed Shunsui was, because behind that there would be power. But no, it isn't easier at all-- just the opposite, actually, because with greater power and greater responsibility comes greater visibility. Suddenly, everyone cares about what he does and instead of laughing or making some slightly off-color joke they bring very real, very tangible disapproval.

The sort of disapproval that can make or break a career, or-- for Shunsui, who of course has far more to lose in this regard-- a noble. And so they have to be even more careful, even more quiet. Shunsui apparently thinks that the best way to do this is to cause as much unrelated scandal as possible, because his advances towards the women of the Gotei-13 are quickly becoming the stuff of legend. Juushirou's own plan is merely a more aggressive version of his usual pleasantness; he will make friends with people before they can listen to anyone else about him, and by the time the rumors reach them they will be absolutely certain that their good friend Ukitake Juushirou would never do such a scandalous thing.

Both of their plans work far, far too well, because it's almost to the point that they can't find a moment _alone_. There are always bright-eyed women wanting a word with Shunsui or eager new graduates wanting advice from Juushirou, which means that their interactions are limited to what's strictly acceptable in public. Everyone knows they are friends, but if anyone from their old class has brought out any of the old rumors then they're whispered only in places where the two men involved won't hear them. But now-- Juushirou's estate is small, and it must look poor compared to what Shunsui came to the Academy from, but no one connected to the Ukitake family would dare cause him trouble and thus it's _safe_\-- they have a few days of respite away from duty.

There's snow on the ground, the ponds frozen over and the trees bare. Winter in Seireitei is beautiful, but silent. He's never liked the silence of it, and so Shunsui-- who is brash and who is bright and who fills entire rooms with his presence-- is a welcome addition to it. It's hardly appropriate weather for sitting outdoors and contemplating the cherry blossoms while Shunsui drinks and Juushirou pretends for a few fleeting minutes that he does not have an ever-growing stack of paperwork to do back in his own division, but the lack of gossip means that they have no need for finding a hidden spot outdoors. Well, it means that, and they can devote their time to something even more interesting than reflecting on the natural beauty of Seireitei.

In the _good_ sort of silence (the warm silence of a summer evening that isn't really silent at all, if you know how to listen) that follows, Shunsui runs a hand through Juushirou's hair. They've both grown their hair out since they left the Academy, Shunsui's a wild profusion of waves that Juushirou finds terribly fascinating compared to his own straight curtain of hair; however boring he finds his own hair, Shunsui seems to like it as much as he does Shunsui's.

"There's a poem in this," Shunsui murmurs. Well, no _wonder_ the man likes his boring hair; Shunsui has never been good with poetry, as his widely-panned literary stylings attest to. To compose a poem about anything more complicated might be beyond his abilities.

"Hardly," he says, but he's so happy he can almost forget that they have to go back to dignity and duty soon enough.

 

3.

Juushirou would never, ever be so callous as to think even in the darkest corners of his mind that there might be a positive side to Aizen's defection and the current war. But if, speaking entirely hypothetically, one might argue that the current atmosphere in Soul Society is the very definition of _better things to worry about_. Even with so much planning, even with every moment spent on the defensive for an attack that simply never comes, they are freer than they have been since their Academy days. Traditions have been destroyed, and it's up to them to make new ones.

He is determined to make the new traditions better than the old. What is good for them will be good for Soul Society.

This particular morning, he does his paperwork in Shunsui's office. He likes it there, partly because he can ration the amount of work he does-- sometimes it feels like Sentarou and Kiyone don't _do_ anything, though of course he would never say that because he knows that they try and it's hard on everyone not to have a Lieutenant-- and partly because it's a pleasant place to be. If anyone finds it strange that he works in Shunsui's office, surely they don't find it stranger than what any of the other Captains do.

He sees the flowered haori fall down over his shoulders before he hears or feels Shunsui behind him, arms over his shoulders and head ducked down to read over his shoulder. The man can be stealthy when he wants to be, as distasteful as he finds it.

"You shouldn't be doing your own requisition forms," Shunsui says. _Nanao-chan does mine_ remains unspoken, because it's still too soon to talk about Lieutenants and replacements. Shunsui knows full well that particular challenge, and how long it took him to replace Lisa with Nanao. (He hates that word, _replace_. The shinigami who takes over for Kaien isn't going to be his replacement; filling the same office in the division doesn't make anyone fit the same unique spot Kaien did.) "No wonder you have so much work."

"No wonder you have so little," he says, making it clear that's not a compliment. He smiles wearily when he says it, though, and turns his head so that he can take a furtive look around the office before he kisses Shunsui. Old habits are hard to break, and the habits of centuries might as well be set in stone; he's not sure he'll ever stop thinking people will judge them incompetent to command for this. Still, he's making progress in that he's daring enough to do such a thing in the actual confines of the Gotei-13 at all.

"You should try it," Shunsui advises him. "You would have more free time, and those officers of yours would have something to do besides fight over you." From anyone else, such a statement would sound jealous; Shunsui just sounds vaguely amused. And why shouldn't he? It's not as if he has anything to worry about. After all, Juushirou isn't the one who makes a show of pursuing every woman he meets regardless of whether or not he's actually attracted to her. Quite the opposite, actually, considering that his pleasant, friendly insistence on keeping everyone but Shunsui at a professional arm's length is what had started half of the tongues wagging in the first place.

He is absolutely too kind of a man to suffer any thoughts of gratitude for the events that caused it, but surely Soul Society will be a better place for the changes suddenly thrust upon it. If they can survive this, it will be spring in Seireitei and anyone who cannot bend in the wind sweeping everything from noble houses to courts will snap and wither. They will have to start yielding to that breeze to survive, just as he has been all these years, and for once he will be the one who can stand his ground.

Spring has always been his favorite season, because it's never silent. Not even to those who don't know how to listen.


End file.
